Hales still needs to earn our trust

TIME IS NOT RIGHT FOR COMEBACK SAYS EOIN

EOIN MORGAN has poured cold water on the idea that Alex Hales could return to international cricket following the coronavirus outbreak.

Morgan, the 50-over World Cup-winning captain, has committed to leading the team into the T20 equivalents in Australia in October and in India 12 months later.

Although Hales, above, would be a contender for a spot on cricketing ability, Morgan is not satisfied enough time has passed for him to regain the trust he lost on the eve of last year’s World Cup.

It was at a training camp in Wales where news broke of Hales’ 21-day ban for a second drugs offence.

The incident was the final straw for Morgan and the senior players, who agreed with the management’s decision to axe the hardhitting batsman from the squad that went on to lift the trophy at Lord’s.

“In terms of what any return looks like practically, it’s human nature, it’s about developing trust,” said Morgan.

“I don’t think you can put a time limit on gaining back that trust, and that is not just with me, that’s with every member of the squad, the backroom staff, the selectors. And that does take time.

“We’re in May, so it’s 11 months ago the incident happened with Alex, it’s actually not that long ago. What happened was considerably harmful to the environment. It led to the breakdown in trust between Alex and our players so to say, ‘How long that will take to regain?’ We don’t know.”

With The Hundred postponed, Morgan will not be able to fulfil his job as London Spirit skipper this year.

But he hopes to be able to captain the Delhi Bulls at the Aldar Properties Abu Dhabi T10 in November.

There still remains huge uncertainty over what sort of cricket will be played this summer, if any at all, and Morgan, left, admitted the chance of any action needs to be grabbed by the players.

“It was the right decision to postpone The Hundred,” said Morgan. “These are extremely uncertain times for absolutely everybody at the moment.

“Any sport is likely to be behind closed doors if and when the Government say so, but we are all keen to do what it takes to play again.

“If the T20 World Cup goes ahead in the slot that it has been allocated at the moment, we will have played a limited amount of cricket beforehand.

“We will have to wait and see how much cricket we play, and the opportunities that land on guys’ laps, and they will have to make the most of them because they will be very limited ones.

“Test cricket will be the priority going forward, but so too are the T20 World Cups and managing director Ashley Giles recognises the opportunity that lies there with the players we have.”

●The Aldar Properties Abu Dhabi T10 is due to be held from November 19-28.